Little over a month after I got back from my six-week spring trip to Europe I was back on the road (well… airplane). This time I was heading to New York City, where from May 27 – 29 BookExpo America (BEA) took place, the #1 publishing trade show in the US.

After last year’s focus on Books in Translation, China was this year’s Guest of Honor at BEA. The Chinese presence was quite overwhelming: their pavilion took up about half of the space in the exhibitor hall.

At the same time, it looked like US publishers’ booths (even those of the big six) had shrunk considerably compared to previous years.

BookExpo America 2015

Whereas an increasing number of foreign publishers and agents attended this year’s show—I met with Norwegian, German, Turkish, Spanish, and Dutch publishers—US publishers preferred to meet elsewhere. I ended up only spending a day and a half at the Javitz Center which hosted the event. The rest of my stay I visited publishers’ offices in Manhattan.

Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Simon & Schuster

Penguin offices

I’m curious to see what will happen in 2016, when not New York but Chicago will be hosting the three-day event.